Is placing Activator cards legal?

[Kyoujin]

It always occurred to me that it's never mentioned in the 'Placing' section of the rules page, but I always assumed you could, because I believe you're legally able to place ALL cards in your deck, save for Events.

[Jack]

No, you can not place Activator cards.

You can't place Any Hero/Character specials unless allowed to do so by the card or a location.

[Kyoujin]

OK, thanks.

What if an activator cards states that "X may not Y for the rest of turn" (or something to that affect)? Does that ruling apply to the character using the activator?

[Jack]

The common rule with Activators is whoever activates the special replaces all instances of the activated special's character name in the special with their own.

Example using A's and B's: A is on my front line, he uses a B activator. B's special card says "B can do stuff.", it now should say "A can do stuff".

I make this distinction because Beyonder doesn't have his own specials yet is a valid activator. This also plays nice with Crystal/Inhumans, Dark Beast/Beast, Storm/Morlocks, etc.

So A plays a B activator and B is allowed to play C specials. C is actually replaced instead of B.

--

Very special case.. take for example:

Since you would replace Green Goblin with A, if A ever had "Explosive Pumpkins" and/or "Gauntlet Blasters" specials, they would be Any Hero specials once this special comes into play.

[Kyoujin]

Thanks again, that answers my question very clearly.

[Shoe]

is it legal, in that situation, to have Gauntlet blasters in your deck if green goblin isn't on your team?

[Jack]

Unless you have the character in your team, you cannot have cards in your deck for them.

[Shoe]

so is that scenario with the green goblin special above even relevant?

[BasiliskFang]

so is that scenario with the green goblin special above even relevant?

can't legally happen in the game.

[Jack]

You're allowed to play it, nothing's technically stopping you from playing it. It just has no effect since there are no other Special cards in the game called "Gauntlet Blasters" except Green Goblin's.

[BasiliskFang]

ok. how about doing that can't legally change anything.

you either have gren goblin specials in your deck or battlesite.

[gameplan.exe]

You're allowed to play it, nothing's technically stopping you from playing it. It just has no effect since there are no other Special cards in the game called "Gauntlet Blasters" except Green Goblin's.

as a side note, this is my argument about Devourer Of Worlds coming up against an Opponent who doesn't have a Battlesite. I believe DoW is still playable, even though the Opponent has no Activators to play against it - so it has no effect. Because DoW doesn't target a Battlesite, but instead affects the Opponent, it shouldn't be discarded as unusable.

It'd be the same as if I played this:

* ANALYTICAL ASSAULT (EC) <MC> {U}
        Opponent must discard any 1 Special card currently held in his hand,
            opponent's choice.

but my opponent had no Specials in hand... did I make an illegale move? no, just an ineffective move.